There’s a new CEO at LIV Golf this year, and while he plans to make a lot of changes, he shares one thing in common with his predecessor: making highly questionable, even outrageous claims about the upstart league.
The new head honcho at the Saudi-financed golf tour, longtime sports business executive Scott O’Neil, officially took over the CEO job from Greg Norman in January. That followed months of rumors that Norman was set to be ousted.
While Norman was perhaps the key figure in the creation of LIV Golf, his caustic, combative style amid the years-long feud with the PGA Tour had worn thin.
Finally, the LIV-PGA Tour deal seems on the verge of — something
With the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which finances LIV, intent on ending the feud, many people believed Norman was the wrong person to make peace.
PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy was one figure who made those opinions known in press conferences on multiple occasions.
So when reports of Norman’s impending ouster started trickling in last fall, many welcomed the news. Perhaps a new, less vitriolic CEO would help the sides come to a final agreement after years of negotiations?
But if O’Neil’s comments on Sunday at the LIV Golf Adelaide event are proof, it seems the new CEO is similar to the old one.
Speaking with David Feherty and others on Fox Sports’ Saturday LIV broadcast, O’Neil dropped a stunner.
“You don’t have to look too far past our leaderboard to know that outside of the majors, if you want to see the best players in the world, there’s only one place to see it,” O’Neil stated. “And that’s at LIV.”
There is no doubt that LIV Golf has some of the best players in the world. Look no further than Joaquin Niemann, who won this week’s Adelaide event. Or Jon Rahm, who was the LIV’s biggest get to date. Or Bryson DeChambeau, the popular reigning U.S. Open champ. Brooks Koepka is another former PGA Tour star who’s won a major since joining LIV. Australia’s Cameron Smith showed incredible promise before joining LIV, including a major win of his own.
But after those five players, LIV’s roster is seriously lacking in firepower. Aging major winners like Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson are nowhere near the players they used to be. And with only 54 players competing in the league, there is very little depth to speak of outside the top 20.
Meanwhile, it’s easy to argue that the PGA Tour features most of the best golfers on the planet, including the best player, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, in addition to McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama, Ludvig Aberg, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Tom Kim and Jordan Spieth, to name just a few.
